Specialist, Materials Planning/Sched

Yazaki International Corporation•La Vergne, TN

About The Position

Manage pipeline inventory to support customer requirements through analysis, planning, ordering, continual monitoring, and occasional intervention while minimizing extraordinary expenses. This role coordinates customer, manufacturing, and internal requirements to support delivery performance, maintain appropriate inventory, manage premium freight and obsolescence, and communicate delivery impacts and recovery plans. The position also supports forecasts, goals, objectives, and priorities; completes required reports and metrics; represents Production Control in meetings; and may assist with trial events, prototype and preproduction meetings, distribution coordination, component consignments, and customer order processing. The posting also describes additional duties for Material Planner II and Senior Material Planner, including subject-matter expertise, mentoring, process development, and leadership of initiatives.

Requirements

A bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience, is preferred.
Required minimum supply-chain or related-field experience varies by level: Material Planner I—none; Material Planner II—3–5 years; Senior Material Planner—5+ years.
English language proficiency is required for all Material Planners.
Spanish is required if the planner directly interacts with customers in Mexico.
Knowledge or use of SAP, Success Factors, and Microsoft Suite.
Availability for on-call coverage during customer production hours, including overtime, weekends, and holidays.
Extended work hours may occasionally be required to meet with parties in different time zones.
Domestic and international travel could be required between Yazaki facilities and to customer and manufacturing sites.
For Material Planner II and Senior Material Planner: demonstrate subject-matter expertise and leadership; mentor and train planners as required.
For Senior Material Planner: advanced knowledge of supply-chain capacity, transfers, transit times, and warehousing; ability to evaluate supply-chain economic impacts and recovery of extraordinary expenses.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
Preferred supply-chain and project-management or related-field experience varies by level: Material Planner I—0–3 years; Material Planner II—5 years; Senior Material Planner—5+ years with Yazaki experience.
For Senior Material Planner: APICS classes or certification preferred.

Responsibilities

Manage pipeline inventory and issue timely manufacturing orders using approved formats and ordering parameters.
Maintain inventory at target levels to reduce inventory costs while supporting customer requirements.
Coordinate with internal departments, manufacturing, and customers to achieve delivery commitments using the lowest-cost option; initiate management-approved premium freight when essential.
Coordinate incoming timing and analyze and report delivery performance.
Manage premium freight orders, including logging and ordering them through appropriate processes and systems, coordinating transportation requirements, and determining cost responsibility based on agreements or negotiations.
Manage obsolescence and balance-out activities, including ordering for zero obsolescence, minimizing obsolescence as customer demand changes, determining cost responsibility, and processing customer claims and scrap promptly.
Serve as a liaison between customers and manufacturing and ensure timely responses to communications.
Assist customers with delivery issues and support engineering changes with manufacturing and customers.
Notify customers promptly of delivery or build impacts, support plans, commitment and recovery timing, and root cause as required.
Manage part registration in applicable systems to ensure readiness to receive EDI and transmit orders to manufacturing.
Manage late customer requests, represent Production Control at customer and manufacturing meetings, and use customer systems as necessary.
Complete required reports and metrics, recognize when escalation is needed, and initiate escalation appropriately.
May monitor manufacturing output against plans for Trial Events and update the carline team on order status.
May support prototype and preproduction meetings, including component procurement, shortage, and Supplier Readiness meetings.
May coordinate shipment timing and special requirements with Distribution, coordinate component consignments with manufacturing and suppliers, and process customer orders in applicable systems.
Support long-range and short-term group forecasts, goals, objectives, and priorities, and perform other assigned projects, tasks, or duties.
For Material Planner II and Senior Material Planner: act as a departmental subject-matter expert, exhibit leadership, support or direct daily activities when the Supervisor is absent, mentor and train Material Planners, aid other carlines, and represent PCD in process development and Functional Group or Business Unit meetings and projects.
For Senior Material Planner: lead core activities and initiatives to improve business practices, identify process gaps and support corrective actions, apply advanced supply-chain knowledge, and evaluate supply-chain economic impacts and recovery of extraordinary expenses.